A Year After Lifesaving Brain Surgery, Patient Gets Doctor to Run

Last March, Kathy Nguyen of Newark, Delaware, was visiting the Los Angeles area with her husband and kids for a family wedding. She collapsed at a brunch and was rushed to a hospital.

Two days later Nguyen, 41, was transferred to Keck Medical Center of USC, where doctors determined that she had experienced a rare type of aneurysm rupture—which required an even rarer surgery to repair.

On March 12, Dr. Jonathan Russin performed the lifesaving surgery on Nguyen. He never could have imagined that 11 months later he—a non-runner at the time—would be crossing the finish line of the Los Angeles Marathon hand in hand with Nguyen.

Russin told Runner’s World by phone that even the busiest medical centers only perform this type of procedure about one to two times per year and there are only a handful of medical centers that do it at all.

In other words, Nguyen was fortunate her aneurysm ruptured when and where it did.

The procedure was successful and one day later, Nguyen emerged from her coma. Several miles away, the L.A. Marathon took place that weekend, and Nguyen, who had completed nine marathons, an Ironman triathlon, and several ultra-distance runs, embarked on a recovery marathon of her own.

Nguyen was able to return home to Delaware on April 7, but she still had her work cut out for her.

“Those first two weeks, I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself, but I was almost resigned to the fact that I’m not going to be able to run again,” Nguyen told Runner’s World by phone. “The pain was just so excruciating. I lost a lot of my strength. Just getting up, getting out of bed was really hard.”

Nguyen’s husband, Robby Alvarez, encouraged Nguyen to come up with a goal. They decided that she would aim to be able to walk one mile by April 26, when the Delaware Brain Aneurysm 5K and Wilson Walk would take place.

Nguyen gradually began to incorporate some light running into her walks. Alvarez continued to encourage Nguyen to set goals. By the summer, she decided that she would aim to run the L.A. Marathon with Alvarez, which would take place one month earlier than usual, on February 14, the day after the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

In each of Nguyen’s previous marathons, she’d run for a cause as part of the FranksWine.com Marathon Team. She decided she’d run this one to raise money for Keck Medicine of USC.

“I’ve never met such a committed and caring medical team,” Nguyen said. “I decided what better way to honor them and to tell them I’m getting better and raise awareness for brain aneurysm research, and at the same time, meet my goal to run a marathon again.”

Nguyen reached out to Cherise Lathan, her physical therapist at Keck, and asked if she and Dr. Russin might be willing to run a few miles of the race with her. Lathan ran the idea past Russin.

“I was like, ‘Well, that’s insulting, come on, she had a crainiotomy. I’ll run the whole thing,’” Russin said. “Little did I know, this was not something that I should have taken so lightly.”

By the time Lathan was done recruiting, she, Dr. Russin, USC physician assistant Joe Hendrix, and Valerie Sanchez and Christopher Sickels from Keck’s Office of Development had all signed up to run in Nguyen’s honor. None of them had ever run a marathon before. Their story was recently featured by the Los Angeles Daily News.

“I was totally impressed. Twenty-six miles is not something to joke about,” Nguyen said. “It says a lot about them and it says a lot about what they do for their patients.”

Russin, a former college lacrosse player who hadn’t done much exercise in recent years, turned to Lathan for advice about how to train in three months for his first marathon. She gave him a copy of her training schedule, which involved running about four to five days a week.

“Well, my schedule doesn’t jive with that,” Russin said. “I’ve got two little girls, my wife is pregnant, and I’m a neurosurgeon, so I was lucky if I got a six-mile run in at some point during the week, and then I would do a long run on the weekend. I just sort of counted on those long runs to get me ready.”

On race day, Nguyen and her husband missed Russin at the start, but ran the first couple miles with Lathan and Sanchez before picking up the pace. Russin inadvertently started before Nguyen and Alvarez, but called Nguyen from mile 23 and told him he’d wait for them there.

The three ran the final three miles together and finished hand in hand, with Nguyen crossing in 4:40:20. Like many first-time marathoners, Russin wasn’t ready to sign up for his next marathon when he crossed the finish line, but by the next day, he was already thinking about doing it again in 2017, and continuing to train throughout the year.

“None of this would have happened if [Nguyen] didn’t put in the effort to come all the way back out here and run this. The least we can do as a medical center is to continue that tradition,” Russin said. “[Completing a marathon] really is exceptional for someone 11 months after having a crainiotomy for a ruptured aneurysm and having a complex cerebrovascular procedure. She’s an exceptional person.

“I hope that people find some sort of inspiration in their own lives and maybe in their running life because if she has the power to do something like that, what does it say about the rest of us?” Russin continued. “We should probably get off the couch.”

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